About the time Dennis Bermudez decided that he really wanted to give MMA a shot was about the time his career flagged as a package loader at UPS.

“The only way they told me I could advance in the company – even though I busted my ass and worked harder than everybody – was with seniority,” Bermudez today told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio). “I was like, ‘That is stupid.'”

He found just the opposite in MMA.

Bermudez (8-3 MMA, 1-1 UFC), a former college wrestler who fights featherweight Tommy Hayden (8-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC) at Saturday’s UFC 150 event, took out his job frustrations by going on a tear on the local circuit, where he fought six times in five months.

According to his record, he took a jaunt to Pennsylvania and fought twice in two nights (though he questions the official record’s timeline). He would tell his manager to book him any fight, anywhere.

“At that time, that’s how I was making my living,” said Bermudez, who’s in the featured FX-televised UFC 150 prelim prior to the pay-per-view main card. “I was banking on winning fights so I could pay my bills. It was actually a pretty stressful time in my life.”

Especially when he was losing. A pair of losses in late 2010 hammered his bottom line.

Bermudez’s initiative, however, took him to tryouts for “The Ultimate Fighter 14,” and he eventually fought his way to the finals. He lost by first-round submission to Diego Brandao, but he secured a contract with the UFC.

In May, he made good on his new deal and dominated Pablo Garza at UFC on FOX 3.

Now, Bermudez wants to slow down. He’s not looking to fight six times a year and thumb his nose at athletic commissions by packing dates close to each other.

“Now that I don’t have to fight so much and I can still pay my bills, it’s nice,” he said. “I want to be around for a while. Going at a nice easy pace so you don’t get burned out.”

Although Bermudez admits he knows as much about Hayden as the general public, he has faith that the UFC is moving him at the right speed.

Hayden, in fact, is coming off a loss to Fabricio Camoes in his octagon debut, though he was undefeated on the regional circuit, where he finished all but one of his opponents.

That’s the way Bermudez has approached all of his jobs, after all. But even after three years of professional fighting, he still has his doubts about his career change, particularly when he starts talking to himself on the way to the cage.

“‘Why don’t have a 9-to-5? (job)'” Bermudez sometimes asks himself. “‘They’re trying to beat me up.’ But then after the fight, you feel like a million bucks, and you can’t wait to do it again.”

MMAjunkie.com Radio broadcasts Monday-Friday at noon ET (9 a.m. PT) live from Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino’s Race & Sports Book. The show is hosted by “Gorgeous” George Garcia, MMAjunkie.com lead staff reporter John Morgan and producer Brian “Goze” Garcia. For more information or to download past episodes, go to www.mmajunkie.com/radio.

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